Mending a Broken Heart
by AndroB
Summary: AU 4th Season. Willow's heart has been broken by Oz after he left but all that will change when Spike bursts into her dorm room.
1. The InitiativePangs

A/N: This is an AU story starting from 'The Initiative'

Willow laid on her bed listening to sad music. It wasn't fair! Why did Oz have to leave? Couldn't he have stayed?

She heard a knock on the door. "Come in!" she called out.

Spike opened the door to Buffy's dorm, triumphant. It was a little trick that he had learned in his 119 years as a vampire—just simply knocking on a door is the quickest way to get an invite. "Spike! What do you want? A spell? I can do that!" Willow said as she quickly jumped up.

Spike glanced away. How stupid could she be? Willow took this chance to make a mad dash for it. Unfortunately, spike was quicker and threw her against the dresser. He then walked up to her ready for a good meal. "I'll scream," Willow declared desperately wishing Buffy were in the dorm room with her.

"Bonus!" Spike replied.

Willow let the loudest scream she could muster and Spike covered her mouth and turned up the music on her CD player. "No!" Willow screamed as she fought Spike.

Spike leaned in to bite her and felt a sharp pain in his head. He sat up and grabbed his head in agony. "I don't understand," he said after a few minutes.

"It's me—it has to be," Willow stated sadly even though she was thankful that Spike couldn't follow through.

A small part of her wondered what it would be like to be a vampire. Would it help her to forget all about Oz? "No," Spike stated breaking her out of her reverie.

Willow shook her head. "Why else would my boyfriend break up with me just so he could go find himself? There has to be something wrong with me! No wonder no vampire has been able to--" Willow trailed off realizing whom she was confiding in.

'_I should be trying to escape not telling my woes to an evil vampire_' Willow thought.

" 'S not you, pet. Lotsa couples break up for no reason at all or 'cause of unfounded accusations," Spike replied.

Willow knew right away that he was talking about Dru. As she looked at him though, she could tell there was more to it than just that.

Commotion outside the dorm caused both Willow and Spike to jump off the bed. Spike quickly opened the door hoping it wasn't the Slayer. Instead he found the soldier boys waiting for him. He ducked and ran only to find more of them.

Spike attempted to fight them off but all he got was more head pain. "My head!" he cried as he felt a bag go over his head.

"Contain the civilian!" a voice ordered.

"Contain this!" Buffy shot back.

Spike used this interruption as a way to escape. After the soldiers left and Buffy was sure everyone was gone, Buffy said, "You okay Willow?"

"I'm fine," Willow replied as she rubbed her neck.

'_I'm one of the lucky ones_' Willow thought.

"Spike didn't--"

"No," Willow told her.

Willow and Buffy didn't talk anymore about Spike but instead the chose to talk about the commandos.

* * *

"Everyone is so lucky to be able to go home to a nice Thanksgiving dinner!" Willow commented as she sat on her bed.

"I thought you were against it," Buffy replied.

"It still would be nice to have one," Willow told her.

"So I'll fix one for all of us Scoobies," Buffy said.

"What about the Shumash Indian tribe?" Willow asked.

"I can juggle cooking along with slayage," Buffy told her.

Willow and Buffy began shopping for ingredients to make the perfect Thanksgiving dinner. Willow's thoughts began to drift towards Spike. How could an evil, undead thing be so understanding? She still wasn't able to figure that one out.

Willow was about to go in the local coffee shop when an arm grabbed her. "Evil! You're all evil again," she half-screamed through Angel's hand when she realized who had grabbed her.

'_I guess most vampires move on quickly_' Willow thought.

"No, I'm not. I'm here to see Buffy. My friend had a vision of her in trouble," Angel explained.

Willow let out a sigh of relief. She'd had too many close calls with vamps already. "She's over there. Go help her!" Willow told him as she pointed out Buffy.

"It's not that simple," he replied.

Angel's words pushed Willow over the edge. "Why are guys like that? They leave and say it's for her own good--" Willow ranted.

"Willow!" Angel snapped.

"Sorry. My stuff," Willow apologized.

"You know I would give anything to be with Buffy."

Willow smiled. At least Angel wasn't like Oz. '_Maybe one day I'll find someone who cares about me as much as Angel cares about Buffy._'

Spike kicked some rocks in the dark alley. It wasn't fair. If he couldn't feed then what kind of vampire was he? A homeless, hungry one—he had decided.

He had one option left. '_I just hope the watcher is in a good mood!_'

As Spike knocked on the door, he knew his blanket only had a limited amount of time left before it disintegrated completely. "Spike. What do you want?" Buffy asked after she opened the door.

"Invite me in!" Spike begged Giles, who was next to Buffy.

"Absolutely not!" Giles replied.

"I've got information on those soldier boys," Spike told Buffy as he moved to a shady spot.

"Oh, really?" Buffy asked.

Spike looked in Giles' apartment and spotted Willow. '_She looks nice!'_ he thought.

_'No don't think like that!'_ he immediately corrected himself.

"They put a chip in my head and now I can't hurt people," Spike explained. "Just ask Red."

Buffy turned around and looked at Willow. "Is this true?"

"Well, Spike did say he was going to find you after he turned me. But, yeah it's true he couldn't bite me," Willow replied.

_'He looks so helpless'_ Willow thought even though she knew what he was capable of.

Giles invited Spike in and Buffy tied him to a chair. "Okay, Will watch Spike while I go find that Indian leader," Buffy told Willow.

"I'm going too!" Xander said as he struggled to get up, not wanting to be in the same room as Spike.

Anya also left with Xander. "I'm hungry!" Spike whined after Giles had left the room.

Willow frowned. Why did Buffy have to leave her with the vampire? "Well you're going to have to wait for Buffy to get back!" she stated.

"Do you know what happens when a vampire doesn't feed?"

"I'm guessing that they turn to dust after a while. But if that were true, all Buffy would have to do is capture vampires and wait for them to turn to dust," Willow replied.

"Living skeleton, red!" Spike informed her.

"Interesting," Willow replied.

_'Angel's probably told Buffy all kinds of interesting facts like that!'_ she thought.

"You going to help keep me from becoming a living skeleton?" Spike asked.


	2. Something NewDoomed 4 Love

Willow knocked on Giles' door. '_Why does Buffy want to meet here?_' she wondered.

"Willow! Glad you could come so quickly!" Buffy commented as she opened the door.

"Well, your call sounded urgent," Willow told her as she walked in.

"It is. I need your help," Buffy stated.

"What with?" Willow asked.

She then sat down and made herself comfy. "Spike."

'_Not him again!' _Willow thought. '_Wish I could just stake him. But it would be wrong to kill a helpless creature!_'

"What about Spike?"

"I need a truth spell—to see if he's telling us the truth," Buffy explained.

"Oh," willow stated.

That didn't sound too hard and afterwards she could mourn the loss of Oz. Willow quickly left and retrieved her spell book. "Hey, Red! What's cooking in that mind of yours?" Spike asked as she sat down in front of the chained vamp.

"Shut up!" Willow chided.

She then took a deep breath in order to concentrate. She didn't want the spell to be messed up. "Verdad salir," Willow said carefully.

Spike laughed dryly. "What's that love?"

"Truth spell. You like?" Willow answered.

"No. They're a pain--" Spike stopped suddenly. "You put one on me? With one of those bloody no-lies-if-it's-a-direct-question?"

"Well, yeah it's the most efficient--"Willow trailed off and covered her mouth.

Her spell was only supposed to work on Spike not her too. "What's wrong pet? Not countin' on being affected too? Guess you got it wrong! 'Specially since you only have to say a little truth before you're free!" Spike stated gleefully as he rattled his chains.

"Hey!" Willow protested.

'_What right did he have to insult my wiccan skills?_' she thought.

"Let's make this a fun experience since we're both doomed to tell the truth for a while. You ask me a question and I'll ask you one. But you have to tell all, love, no stopping once you've told enough to be off the hook," Spike explained.

'_This'll be so much bloody fun. Almost as fun as biting her but not quite._'

"Fine, but I go first!" Willow said.

Spike nodded, wanting his turn to be over with so he could have fun with the redhead. "How do you know so much about these types of spells?" Willow questioned.

Spike glared. He hadn't been expecting **THAT** question. "I'm from the bloody order of Aurelius. Strong magick runs in the family and I've encountered the infamous truth spell several times. Dru loved to use it on her victims," Spike answered.

"Hmm. How come magick runs in your family?"

"Apparently the Master ate a gypsy, gained their powers and passed them on to everyone he sired after that," Spike told her.

"Oh."

"What really happened between you and dogboy?"

Spike had been wondering about that ever since Willow had mentioned that Oz broke up with her.

Willow took a deep breath and braced herself for the stream of words that were about to come out. "He was falling for another werewolf, Veruca, and I tried to get revenge and then he left because he couldn't control his wolfy side!" Willow said.

"Sounds exactly like someone who wouldn't know a good girlfriend if he saw one!" Spike replied.

"Can you do magick?"

"Yeah but if I do too much I'll become addicted so I don't do any. The more powerful spells you do, the more addicted you get. Stuff you do wouldn't cause that."

Willow felt a sudden sense of hope. Spike could help her become a better Wicca. If he would only be willing. '_It wouldn't hurt to ask!_' she thought.

"Could you help me become more advanced in spell casting?"

"Sure," Spike replied immediately.

He frowned. '_Why did I agree?_' he thought.

"You're really breaking the rules, Red!" Spike told her.

"Sorry. One more. Did you tell Buffy the truth about the soldier boys?"

"Of course. Now for mine. Are upset that Oz left you?"

"No," Willow said surprising both herself and Spike.

Before they knew it, they were kissing. Spike and Willow pulled away seconds later, both disgusted with what had just happened. "That was a-a glitch in my spell. It meant nothing. Forget it happened. I don't love you!" Willow exclaimed.

"Got that right!" Spike agreed.

Willow did her best to avoid Spike after that. She figured maybe eventually her conflicting feelings for Spike would leave and she would be completely over Oz.

Willow slowly walked down to the basement of Xander's home wondering what was so urgent. Instead of finding Xander, she found Spike getting ready to dust himself. "Spike! What are you doing?" she cried out.

"What's it look like?" he retorted.

"You can't stake yourself!" she exclaimed.

" Why not? I'm useless even Buffy thinks so. Not to mention I can't fix a bloody pipe leak!" Spike said.

"Buffy doesn't think you're useless!" Willow argued.

"Right, that's why she's stopped thinking of me as a danger and more of just a harmless puppy who has inside info!" Spike replied. "No one would care if I was gone. World would be better off."

"I care. Sure you look completely wild in that Hawaiian shirt but you can't just stake yourself. You're helping me with magick and you're really understanding!" Willow told him.

"Fine, I won't stake myself but only 'cause I like you!"

"What's that mean?"

"What do you bloody think?"

Willow's green eyes got huge and Spike quickly said, "As a human, person, friend. I wouldn't eat you just turn you if I could. So our friendship could last forever."

Willow smiled. '_At least he doesn't love me. If only I could be sure that I didn't love him!'_


End file.
